I have met the most inspiring people whilst conducting interviews for my book on leadership.

Here are snippets of some of the interviews that I have conducted with everyday leaders.

These extracts are part of the interviews that I have conducted with people from various industries and backgrounds. The full interviews will be available in my book when it is released soon.

The comments below are part of the answers given by these individuals to the question:

What are the essential qualities of a leader?

Marina Hart:

Christine Caine once said that talent in you will destroy you unless the character of you can sustain you. So to me, the essential quality of the leader is character.

Leadership is not lording it over others and telling others what to do. It's having the character to help others succeed. So character first and foremost.

Andrew Garlick:

Leaders need to be strong, confident and have some runs on the board. It is hard for people to follow a leader if they don't have some degree of success. They must be trustworthy because people have to feel that they can trust them.

Real leaders have to be excited by the prospects of where they are heading and where people are going. I don't think you can lead people if you yourself aren't excited about where you're going. A leader needs the respect of the team. They are also aware of their own impact on others.

Linda Benson:

An essential quality of a leader is being humble so having humility.

Other qualities include being honest which I think is very important as well as being able to put things into perspective and not over-reacting to situations.

Essentially, a good leader is calm under pressure.

What are your thoughts on the essential qualities of a leader?

Your comments are most welcome so feel free to leave them below.

About the book …

For the full interviews with each of these people and others check out Success Talks: Conversations with Everyday Leaders.